Artistic Frustration

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Before we moved to the Grand View Ranch, a young buck made a home for himself beneath the elevated deck off the back of the house. He stayed there all summer until the fall when he had grown a magnificent rack of antlers. Every time we went onto the deck, the startled buck would scurry out from beneath the deck with his antlers scraping the bottom of the cedar deck. He would sit nearby and observe us, the new tenants in his old domain. I could just image that he was thinking, “Well, there goes the neighborhood.” I created this painting from sketches that I made last summer on the back deck at the Grand View Ranch.

As many beginning artists begin to paint, they are amazed by what unfolds beneath their brushes. Smoothly their artistic focus emerges stroke by stroke on their canvases as the unsuspecting artists passionately pursues their craft, loving every moment, and savoring their experiences as they learn to create and be in the world of art. Then one day, they create a painting that sucks. “F*1@!” and “S@$%!” are some of the words used in these moments of artistic frustration. It is an especially good idea to have a separate studio from the rest of the house, not because artists need a quiet place to paint, but because of the outbursts artists experience when they verbally express their annoyance and despair with the creative process. When an artist is confronted by his disappointing efforts, the artist somehow wants to disown his work. This experience is destined to occur to all artists. And, when it happens to you, I recommend that you seek encouragement from other artists who have gone through the same experience.
At these times, I love to read the insights of John Ruskin who wrote a series of books at the turn of the 19th century called Modern Painters. He puts all of this into perspective when he said, “When we paint, let us think that we paint forever. Let it not be for present delight or for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendents will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stroke by stroke, that a time is to come when those paintings will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, “See! This our father did for us.” –John Ruskin

If you are interested in experiencing a breakthrough weekend that will take your art to the next level, visit our new website at http://www.thegrandview.com/, and you can download my FREE BOOK where I share “Everything I know About Painting.”

I hope that we can build a community of artists that can share information with each other.If you know of any artists that might appreciate being included, let them know about this blog.

I hope to offer more painting tips as this conversation continues. If you have questions that you would like me to answer, please don’t hesitate to email me anytime.

I welcome your feedback. Stefan_Baumann@yahoo.com